Study: 20% Fewer Physician Assistants Choose Primary Care

A study recently published in the Annals of Family Medicine suggests that age, gender and race affect the likelihood of a physician assistant choosing to practice primary care.

The percentage of PAs in primary care has declined from 50.8 percent in 1996 to 31 percent in 2010. Researchers from Midwestern University in Glendale, Ariz., determined that women and Hispanic PAs are more likely than their colleagues to practice primary care.

The following is a breakdown of what percent of PAs in each demographic are practicing primary care. Findings are based on 18,048 survey respondents who graduated from PA school between 1965 and 2008.